“He began to feel the danger of paying Elizabeth too much attention.“
Today, as for the last few chapters, Lizzy and her sister Jane take up space in Charles Bingley’s home while Jane recovers from what appears to be a mild cold that’s ravaging her. At last, Jane leaves her room with Lizzy’s help to do what she came there to do : have a chat after dinner. It seems that for all their deplorable attitudes towards Lizzy, Bingley’s sisters sincerely like Jane, demonstrating “considerable” conversation skills before the men join them.
But they do, and then “Ms Bingley’s eyes were immediately drawn to Mr Darcy”. Whether she wanted to bring something of a jealous or Lizzy-related subject I’m unclear, but attention is soon turned to Jane as the household finally get acquainted with the woman who’s been eating their supplies for half a week and spare no expense in making her as comfortable as possible. This comes at Mr Hurst’s expense as no-one accepts his “open petition” for playing cards and promptly drifts off by the fireplace.
As the waking characters take to good literature for entertainment, we find that Ms Bingley can’t seem to take her eyes off of the Darciest of Darcys. I suppose this infatuation was built up by her jealousy of his interest in Lizzy, but it still feels sudden to me. Were the chapters of this book, like a lot of literature that lasted from that time to now, serialised in a newspaper or something? Because that might explain it. Maybe it’s just me who finds this Love Triangle a bit rushed. She fails to get his attention, much like in the last chapter, and decides to give up on her book to announce to absolutely no-one in particular that she loves reading so much that she must have an “excellent library” when the times comes, presumably directing a glance or two at Darcy before giving up.
Talk (well, just Ms Bingley at the moment) turns back to the prospect of a Bingley Ball⧫ happening soon and the fact that some people present with social anxiety who won’t engage in a meaningful conversation with certain other people present might find it “rather a punishment than a pleasure”. Charles Bingley has no patience for his sister’s niceties and says that his good friend Darcy is welcome to go to bed before the party starts should he wish to.
Ms Bingley, who Charles reveals to be called Caroline rather loudly expresses her wish that balls were less like balls than they are. He responds as you only can, with “it would not be near so much as a ball”, to which she falls silent, walks up and down the room to catch Mr Darcy’s eye with her elegance before persuading Lizzy (and trying to persuade him) to do the same. Truly, this book is deserving of its ‘classic’ status for scenes such as these that really pin down what love was all about - going back-and-forth like a peacock in mating season.
When he, like all of us, wonders what on Earth these ladies are playing at and asks them in far more words, Lizzy decides to not play his dastardly games and clarify exactly what he means, but Caroline cannot help herself and learns that he’s quite happy to watch them from the fire if the point was to catch his eye. Even though this seems to be exactly what she intended, Caroline is outraged and drags Lizzy into a (presumably over-acted) plot to teach him a lesson. Lizzy draws the line at laughing and Darcy adds that the great equalizer amongst men is laughing at someone “whose first object in life is a joke”. Whether he (or Austen) is alluding to the futility of spending your life looking for a husband to get married to have children to get them husbands to have children and so on is not entirely clear, but seems likely. Lizzy retorts that “vanity and pride” are the objects of ridicule he must surely mean, to which he insists that pride is always well-regulated when the proud has “a real superiority of the mind”.
With a stifled chuckle, Lizzy’s examination of Fitzwilliam ends. Her diagnosis? He has “no defect”. The first to debate this is, naturally, Darcy himself, who highlights his unwavering temper for her consideration, quashing any false accusations of perfection. Ms Bingley feels a bit left out of this conversation and decides there will be music, ordering her sister to join in. And so another chapter ends, and I go to get some sleep. It’s 1am as I write this and I regret nothing.
⧫Not actually a ball it seems. Ignore my misinformation and alliteration.
Thoughts
- I think we have everyone’s names now. Why the prose couldn’t have mentioned them, I don’t know.
- The Love Triangle has gotten so obvious even I have noticed it.
- Surprisingly little of Jane in the chapter. If she was replaced with a pet cat, I don’t think it would affect the story too much here.
- My schedule has shifted so that Tuesday is my best day for this kind of thing. Readers new and old - make a note on your calendar or spend eternity forever two days behind the rest.
